


Reunions

by ancestrallizard



Category: Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: Arjuna is there but not the focus xactly, Gen, OC Focused
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-03
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-07-06 13:59:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15887457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ancestrallizard/pseuds/ancestrallizard
Summary: Manton Thomas is witness to two reunions in one night, and neither are the ones he is fighting for.





	Reunions

**Author's Note:**

> Never written for Fate, and never played the games, but I still wanted to give it a shot for my own sake if nothing else. Hence why its so OC focused

“Are we almost there?” 

His Archer, staring out the window in the passenger seat, didn’t answer him. Manton Thomas grumbled under his breath and reached over to get the map from the glove compartment. 

Contrary to their prescribed roles, Archer acted far more as a Master than a Servant. Never to the point of blatant rudeness, but he treated every activity outside of battle with an undercurrent of grudging acceptance. 

As if it was ridiculous that a Prince, that Arjuna himself, had to take orders from someone like him, worlds away in status and experience. Manton was a professor (Used to be a professor, an irksome voice in the back of his mind specified, adding to the already extensive list of ‘Used to be’ – Used to be a favorite son, Used to be a husband, Used to be a father), and he expected more deference than what his Servant was willing to give.

The heat didn’t help either of their temperaments. The South Carolina night had long bypassed sweltering, and the car’s paltry air conditioning barely made a dent in it. 

The uniqueness of this Grail War proved to be an unexpected boon. Twice as many contestants as normal, and so two people could win. He had a weak grasp of magic, had given it up to pursue mundane academia decades ago, and even with a demigod prince at his beck and call, he needed allies maybe more than anyone in the war. 

(Archer hadn’t said anything about Manton’s abilities. He hadn’t needed to – the way he looked at him after he was first summoned said it all).

By some strange stroke of fate, one of his second-cousins, Sunniva, was participating in the war as well, and summoned a Berserker. The alliance was her idea, and he was quick to agree. They’d never gotten along specially before, in the times they met as children, but that didn’t matter now. Though farther in the fringes of their family, she was miles more adept at magecraft.

She also lived in the middle of god dammed nowhere. He’d left streetlights behind an hour ago and could only hope he didn’t hit a deer or cow or peryton or whatever it was that lived out in the boondocks. 

As it turned out, they really were almost there. The headlights soon illuminate a large stone, with sigils he barley recognized carved into it. More stones soon appeared forming a rudimentary path that led to a small house, walled in by trees and darkness so thick it almost breathed. Someone stood on the front porch. Dogs bayed somewhere behind the house. 

He grimaced. Dogs were loud, messy things, which was why he never bought David a puppy when he kept asking for one.

He still didn’t like them. He would buy David a whole pack of puppies if he could.

Muscles in Archer’s forearm twitched, as if stringing an invisible bow. 

“Don’t hurt her.” Manton ordered. “She won’t attack us.”

He didn’t know that for certain, of course. But he didn’t want his only potential ally shoot in the face this soon.

He put car in park and got out, and his glasses immediately fogged. 

Sunniva stepped out from the front porch, haloed by the light from the house. She still wore torn, paint stained clothes like to before. Messy blonde hair fell down shoulders, covering the scar on her shoulder from when she’d fallen down a hill when they were kids.

He nodded. “Sunniva.”

“Manny.”

Annoyance flared at the hated childhood nickname, but he kept his peace. 

She stared him down a moment, and then turned away. “Come on in, both of you.”

The inside of the house was small and eclectically furnished. It smelled like Spanish moss and cooked meat. Manton’s stomach growled audibly. He hadn’t eaten since breakfast.

“I got the dogs settled,” an unfamiliar voice from the other room said. The stranger rounded the corner, and Manton did a double take.

Manton’s first thought is that she must have been mistaken when identifying her servant. The young man before them, dark eyed and lithely muscled, was young, very young, barely old enough to be mistaken for a freshman in the intro classes he used to teach. This was a Berserker? 

His second thought was that Sunniva had somehow stolen his Servant. The young man, though clad in spare clothes that hung awkwardly off his frame and not blue and white robes, was still a dead-ringer for Arjuna. 

Manton stared at him, and when Arjuna finally entered he saw his surprise mirrored on Sunniva’s face. 

Arjuna was frozen on the threshold of the house, staring at the other Servant. All composure and pride had evaporated from him, supplanted by nauseous shock, like that of a deer before a hunter. 

Berserker looked back, curiously but blankly, without recognition.

Manton looked back and forth at the Servants, near mirror images of each other. 

Oh. 

Even if hadn’t done his research when he first summoned the prince, he would recognize the emotions warring on Archer’s face, the volatile mixture of sadness and regret and love.

Sunniva’s Berserker tilted his head. “I’m sorry, do I know you?” 

Arjuna swallow. “You’re – I’m – ,“

Sunniva frowned. “What is going on?” 

Manton shook his head in lieu of answering. “Let’s give them a moment.”

They retreated to the tiny half-lit kitchen to grant them space, and ate leftover smoked spare ribs in the meantime. He hadn’t had it in years, and ate at it straight from the fridge. He heard the Servants as he ate, still by the front door, their voices low. 

When he came up for air between the fourth and fifth rib, he asked, “How has your sister been doing?”

His cousin stared for a moment, ascertaining if the inquiry was sincere or not. “Better,” She said eventually. “She got a new job, moved up to Richmond a few years ago.” 

“That’s good,” he replied, and dove back in for another rib.

Manton did not know if relatives summoning relatives was coincidence or a higher power at work – in any case, he would give Arjuna the chance with Abhimanyu that he himself wished he could get with David. 

The chance he would get, if they won this Grail War.

**Author's Note:**

> Will Manton ever see his son again? idk bc I’m not continuing this, so I’ll say he does
> 
> I’v got other writing at: ancestrallizard.tumblr.com
> 
> And a twitter I barley use: twitter.com/DVLblues


End file.
